BricsCAD V23

In late October, Bricsys, a part of Hexagon AB, announced and released their latest version of BricsCAD® V23 during their annual Bricsys Digital Summit. The digital summit provided an update on the latest and greatest innovations, all backed by the “Build Better” slogan. Over the last decade, software capabilities have increased yet the development of drafting software, especially 2D, has remained stagnant. This is where Bricsys has committed to “Build Better”, delivering sustainable and seamless solutions to improve productivity and support industrialized construction. Let’s take a look at some of the new features of BricsCAD V23 and uncover how Bricsys BricsCAD® has climbed to the top by building better software.

How does “Build Better” translate into the Bricsys family of products? Bricsys focuses on four principles: challenge the status quo through CAD-based innovation, intuitive to learn, use and adopt, harness new technology to super-charge productivity, and interoperable and open. BricsCAD leads in delivering intelligent, AI-powered CAD tools for the design process. Whether it is the AEC or Manufacturing sectors, BricsCAD® Pro and Lite’s AI-powered enhancements promote innovative 2D tooling and advanced 3D modeling. Bricsys prioritizes the total user experience when buying, training, implementing, and upgrading. Bricsys products are easy to adopt into your existing workflows and the design solutions free your creativity. Additionally, Bricsys products offer the best interoperability and openness, where users can collaborate and coordinate seamlessly, extending core capabilities with third-party development. Clearly, Bricsys is on a mission to take design efficiency and productivity to the next level.

For years, BricsCAD has provided unrivaled tools promoting efficiency and productivity to its users through cutting-edge technology and artificial intelligence. Existing examples of these tools include Blockify, Propagate, CopyGuided, and

Figure 1

Command Assist tools just to name a few. Let’s take a deeper dive into those production improvements inside BricsCAD V23.

• Optimize 2D - Corrects inaccuracies in the drawing for 2D entities or 3D entities. Instead of visually scanning the entire drawing for incorrect linework, allow “Optimize” to make those corrections efficiently. (See Figure 1)

• CopyGuided 3D - Copies 3D Solids, Block references, or a set of faces from one location to another, using reference faces of the user’s choice. Intuitively, trimming and extending linework automatically reduces the need to fix existing moved/adjusted linework.

• Connect - Connect coplanar 2D curves. Connect does not change the underlying geometric definition of the input curve elements, only changes the start and/or endpoints to make them connected. When possible, the now connected input curves are joined into a polyline.

• DwgHealth - Combines the functionality of multiple stand-alone BricsCAD commands that help to improve overall drawing size and accuracy, e.g.: Purge, Audit, Simplify, Overkill,

Blockify, Optimize. Three modes of selection assist with the specific level of detail and involvement in drawing optimization. (See Figure 2)

Figure 2

Figure 3

• ParametricBlockAssist (Beta) - The Parametric

Block Assist dialog box allows you to choose selected ACAD Dynamic Blocks in the current drawing to be converted to BCAD Parametric

Blocks. (See Figure 3) • GISImport/Export – Import/Export vector geographic features with their original location, shape, and attributes from ESRI SHP files into the current drawing and specify properties for each imported GIS Feature.

• HSPC (Hexagon Smart Point Cloud) is the new point cloud format. HSPC is a powerful, robust format for handling point cloud data.

• The HSPC format, a format created by the

Hexagon research group, allows for the storage of metadata, per point, during or after preprocessing.

• Point Cloud Manager Panel - The Point Cloud

Manager panel creates and manages regions in a point cloud and controls the display of point clouds based on scans, classification, and regions, all in one centralized location. (See

Figure 4)

When it comes to releasing a new version of software, feature enhancements are as important as the new features in the software. Evaluating, updating, and revamping existing functions is a crucial aspect of increasing productivity for the end user. Here are a few notable feature enhancements for BricsCAD V23:

Figure 4

Figure 6 • Express Tools for BricsCAD are fully integrated into BricsCAD V23

• Drawing Recovery Manager panel displays a list of drawing files that can be recovered after a program or system failure. (See Figure 5)

• Increased compatibility with ACAD

Mechanical toolsets

• Power Dimensioning

• Define and annotate welded joints in 2D/3D

• Integrated BOM (Bill of Materials) to locate and identify ACAD parts (See

Figure 6)

• Command unification while adding individual command panels for multiple BIM functions, including

BOM for BIM.

• Introduced options for labeling Civil entities for TIN Surface, TIN Volume

Surface, and Grading.

• Developed a user interface for importing Civil Points from the point file allowing users to specify any point file format for importing Civil Points.

• The Civil Explorer panel is used to manage and access Civil entities. Through this panel, you can access the settings and properties of Civil entities, and allows you to edit existing and add new entities and their components. (See Figure 7)

• Integration with Leica iCON Field and New 24/7 Mobile App. Connect the office and field for construction layout with Bricsys 24/7 cloudcollaboration solution and Leica iCON field software and hardware. Increase your efficiency with the simplest, most accurate constructionlayout solutions available. (See Figure 8)

The latest release of V23 of BricsCAD® Pro/Lite, BricsCAD® BIM, and BricsCAD® Mechanical delivers more AI-assisted commands and powerful capabilities in 2D/3D and modeling for designers, innovators, and engineers. V23 adds to the productivity and compatibility of workflows on Bricsys’ interoperable and open DWG platform,

Figure 8

enhanced for professionals across design, AEC, manufacturing, and engineering to create with intuitive tools.

In recent years, software innovation has been made up of a patchwork of solutions where users are held in a world of price and licensing inflexibility with the data, your data, often stuck within walled gardens. Bricsys recognizes the grumbling, strife, and how cynical users have become about the building software industry. Yet, Bricsys is striving to shake it up. Not to mention, Bricsys offers the most flexible business models in the industry by offering standalone, volume, and network licensing. With greater innovation with better tools for better buildings and manufacturing design processes, Bricsys has optimism to reconstruct what building software should do for all of its users. Bricsys’ mission is to build simple, well-designed, and easyto-use software. Indeed, Bricsys has built better with BricsCAD V23.

Watch the all of the 2022 Bricsys Digtial Summit sessions at https://www.bricsys.com/en-us/ summit/2022, and visit http://www.bricsys.com to start your free trial of BricsCAD V23.

Mr. Craig Swearingen is a Global Implementation Specialist and Consultant with Bricsys BricsCAD® and has over 20+ years in the CAD and Engineering Industry. In his current role, Craig provides migration and implementation guidance, strategies, and technical assistance to global companies who desire an alternative CAD software solution promoting the reduction of design software costs while increasing productivity. As a former technician and Cad Manager, Mr. Swearingen understands the importance to have the right tools to do the job. He previously spent 19 years in the civil engineering world as a technician, Civil 3D & CAD power user, and became a supportintensive CAD/IT manager in high-volume production environments. Craig is a longtime AUGI member (2009), Certified Autodesk AutoCad Professional, and enjoys networking with other CAD users and providing CAD and design solutions on LinkedIn.

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